So.

Yeah.

nVidia is trying to make me die from crazy antics to make it work.

I reinstalled.  I was still having an xorg-being-eaten issue, so I started fiddling with the settings (again) and did the following:

• Turned off "Sync to VBlank" (In the OpenGL Settings)
• Turned off "Allow Flipping" (In the OpenGL Settings)
• Change the "Image Settings" to "Performance"... the slider will be about 2 notches down from the last "Quality" (In the OpenGL Settings)
• Turn off "Sync to VBlank" in the X Server XVideo Settings
• Make sure the PowerMizer settings are on "Adaptive"

Now, I think part of my heat issue is the fact that it's insanely hot here (90F) and our A/C is barely keeping up with removing the humidity from the air.  But, with these changes, I'm running Unity with no problems, and my system performance applet (SysPeek) is not bouncing up to the "red zone".  This is good.

So, I'm not running my preferred dual-head setup, but that's ok, because my actual monitor space is decent (1680x1050).  Also, I feel more focused on what I'm working on with the one screen.  Oh, and I still have 4 workspaces, so it's easy to separate my tasks out (browsing and writing on #1, microblogging/chat/irc on #2, and audio/video on #3.  Number four is my free workspace.).

I'm sticking with this setup.  I've finally got it working, with minimal visual degradation to my games (mainly SuperTuxCart).  Also, I have increased desk space due to not having a second monitor.

I'm so looking forward to Oneiric and hopefully this issue with nVidia will be fixed.  2012 will be bringing Wayland, and I'm not relishing the changeover and the problems that will surely ensue.

Well, that didn't work.

I'm posting this here to keep things updated.

I'll be trying to poke the Ubuntu Forums some more this weekend and maybe get an answer out of System76 on Monday.

All right.

So, I'm sure everyone who reads this blog (or at least the ones I haven't scared off yet) know I've been having issues with my nVidia drivers.  I was using the nouveau drivers, which is fine, but they have a bad "blocking" effect with embedded flash videos.  Also, I didn't think I was getting full 3D acceleration.

When I ran the nVidia drivers, Xorg would peg my CPU between 10 minutes and 3 hours.  "top" would show xorg taking up all of my CPU; compiz wasn't far behind.

I don't understand why this is happening, but I just know that it is happening.

So, I was doing some searching on the Ubuntu Forums (which is hit-or-miss regarding issues) and found this thread.

I tried the commands in comment #19:

sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia*
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
sudo nvidia-settings

I saved the xorg, rebooted, added my external monitor, and configured it (along with the gamma).

I seem to have a working setup right now...  Let's hope it holds for awhile.